Thursday, June 19, 2014

There are
two sorts of people who might be tempted to think of death as a friend: those
who think the nature of the human person has nothing to do with the body, and
those who think it has everything to do with the body; in short, Platonists and
materialists. Protestant theologian Oscar
Cullmann summarizes the Platonist’s position in his little book Immortality
of the Soul or Resurrection of the Dead? as follows:

Wednesday, June 11, 2014

I thank The
Smithy’s Michael Sullivan for his two spirited further installments (here
and here)
in his series of posts on my book Scholastic
Metaphysics. (I responded to the
first of his posts here.) Sullivan says some very kind things about my
book, which I appreciate. He also raises
some criticisms which, though I disagree with them, are reasonable. But unfortunately, some of his remarks are
unjust and intemperate. Let me comment
on those first.

Tuesday, June 3, 2014

In his
encyclical Aeterni
Patris, Pope Leo XIII called for a “restoration of Christian philosophy.”
He was quite specific about what he had in mind:

[D]aily experience, and the judgment
of the greatest men, and, to crown all, the voice of the Church, have favored
the Scholastic philosophy.

Indeed, he
was even more specific than that:

Among the Scholastic Doctors, the
chief and master of all towers Thomas Aquinas…

We exhort you, venerable brethren, in
all earnestness to restore the golden wisdom of St. Thomas, and to spread it
far and wide for the defense and beauty of the Catholic faith, for the good of
society, and for the advantage of all the sciences… Let carefully selected
teachers endeavor to implant the doctrine of Thomas Aquinas in the minds of
students, and set forth clearly his solidity and excellence over others. Let the universities already founded or to be
founded by you illustrate and defend this doctrine, and use it for the
refutation of prevailing errors.

On another
matter, readers keep asking me how to get hold of Scholastic
Metaphysics, which was released on April 1, somewhat ahead of schedule. Apparently the book sold out very quickly because
supply could not meet all the pre-orders and Amazon has been out of stock for
some time. I have been told that a new
shipment arrived at the U.S. distributor’s warehouse a week or so ago and that
the book should once again be available from Amazon this week. So, sit tight, and many, many thanks for your
patience and interest.

About Me

I am a writer and philosopher living in Los Angeles. I teach philosophy at Pasadena City College. My primary academic research interests are in the philosophy of mind, moral and political philosophy, and philosophy of religion. I also write on politics, from a conservative point of view; and on religion, from a traditional Roman Catholic perspective.